Mississippi State men’s basketball falls 66-63 to Colorado State

FORT WORTH, Texas — The Mississippi State men’s basketball team led 57-49 with 6:16 to play before Colorado State went on a 17-2 run to go ahead 66-59 and ultimately going on to win 66-63 Saturday afternoon inside Dickies Arena as part of the Basketball Hall of Fame Classic.

MSU missed three 3-pointers in the last 30 seconds, including Junior guard Iverson Molinar’s missed triple at the buzzer.

With the loss, the Bulldogs fall to 6-3, while the Rams improve to 10-0.

MSU graduate forward Garrison Brooks led the Bulldogs with 15 points, nine of which came from 3-pointers, while sophomore guard Shakeel Moore and redshirt junior forward Javian Davis scored 13 points apiece. Molinar finished with 11 points and five assists.

The Bulldogs shot 21-for-62 (33.9%) from the field, including 7-for-28 (25%) from 3-point range. They made 14 of 15 (93.3%) from the free-throw line.

The Rams shot 47.2% overall and made 11 of their 26 3-pointers (42.3%), seven of which came in the second half.

Junior forward David Roddy scored 19 points to lead Colorado State, while senior guard Kendle Moore added 13 points.

The Bulldogs led for most of the first half and grew their lead to 11 at 25-14 with 6:47 left in the first half. The Rams then closed out the half on a 13-4 run to cut MSU’s lead to two points at 29-27 at the halftime break.

In the second half, the Rams tied the game at 31-31 with 18:42 to play before the Bulldogs used an 11-0 run to go up 42-33, but the Rams followed with back-to-back 3s to make it 42-39 with 13:32 left.

MSU grew its lead back to eight before the Rams used their 17-2 run to take a seven-point lead,

A pair of free throws by Davis and a putback by Brooks made it 66-63 with 1:02 left. The final minute saw misses by both teams until Roddy was fouled and went to the free-throw line with five seconds remaining. He missed the front end of the one-and-one, then Molinar missed the potential game-tying bucket at the buzzer.

The Bulldogs will be back in action Tuesday when they host Georgia State at 7 p.m. CT. The game will air on SEC Network+.